martedì, novembre 29, 2011

Lincoln St. Exit - Drive It! (1970 us hard psych)

This disc is a great re-release of Lincoln St. Exit's early material! It easily stands up to the releases of any other underground psychedelic band of the era (The Chob, Moving Sidewalks, etc). Between this and the ENTRANCE album, released under their then current name Xit, in the 70s; one would have the bulk of the Lincoln St. Exit material. This would leave a die-hard fan only to track down their "Who's Been Driving My Little Yellow Taxi Cab b/w Paper Place", "Half a Dream / Sunny Sunday b/w Whatever Happened to Baby Jesus" and the elusive " Whatever Happened Pt. 1 b/w Whatever Happened Pt. 2" singles, to have a complete collection. The DRIVE IT EP features the heaviest and most blazing psychedelic guitar material, while ENTRANCE is on the rather mellow ballad side. The only exceptions on ENTRANCE are the rockin' "Mississippi Riverboat Gamblin' Man", and "She's My Everything" which substitutes sax and piano solos for electric guitar. Between these two releases, only "Soulful Drifter" and "Sunny Sunday Dream" are shared in common. The DRIVE IT version of "Soulful Drifter" is 1:10 shorter than the other version (presumably from an earlier recording), and has no 'string section', organ or tambourine. The DRIVE IT "Sunny Sunday Dream" is a simple studio recording that's basically identical, except the ENTRANCE version is in excellent stereo, and includes a completely different ending in which so much echo is added that it becomes a chaotic mess before the rhythm section drops out, leaving only the organ and howling guitar (for 18 extra seconds). As they headed into the 70s this group became unconcerned with Pop culture's idea of 'hip' and wrote less Pop-oriented tunes; opting instead for drawn out, native drummed, native sung, orchestral concept albums. All great stuff.
From RYM (sambson)